Any other reasons why the Dominion left the anomaly open?

[Photon]

One reason was to let the "50" (think that was the number) back into Dom territory after being sent out for so many years.

Can't think of any other reasons they'd attack foreign invaders (read, non violent) just b/c they passed thru the anomaly, and didn't even violate Dominion space proper

 

[Michael]

I'm not sure if I read your post right, but it has always been my understanding that the Founders didn't even know about the wormhole.

Oh, and they send out a hundred infant changelings.

 

[od0_ital]

Plus I doubt that all one hundred of 'em wound up in the Alpha Quadrant.

Odo was one, and he more or less was a puddle of goo on an asteroid in the Denorias Belt.

Laas was the other, and there was the comment that Starfleet hadn't been to where Laas came from.

Then there was the baby changeling that Quark bought and sold to Odo...no tellin' where that came from!

As for the Dominion closin' it, why would they deny themselves access to an unruly galaxy that they wanted to control, once they knew it was there?

 

[Lateralus]

There have been indications that the Dominion was well aware of the Federation's existence long before contact was made, but they were just as oblivious to the existence of the wormhole as the Federation was.

 

[Anthony Sabre]

There have been indications that the Dominion was well aware of the Federation's existence long before contact was made...

Now that would have made for an interesting story. What indications?

 

[Anwar]

The writers themselves said that the Dominion knew about the Federation for a while (the Dominion had existed for 2000 years) and they were planning on expanding naturally through their space until they met the Federation and then would take them out in a mass swarm invasion. The Wormhole sped up their timetable by a few hundred years.

 

[PorthosShadow]

The writers themselves said that the Dominion knew about the Federation for a while (the Dominion had existed for 2000 years) and they were planning on expanding naturally through their space until they met the Federation and then would take them out in a mass swarm invasion. The Wormhole sped up their timetable by a few hundred years.

I know what your referring to, I think its one of the bonus features of the season 4 DVD or season 5 but either way there is an interview with Robert Hewitt Wolfe where I think he says that was the original idea they had regarding the Dominion. I was actually a little disapointed that none of that made it on screen. I mean The Dominon was already pretty cool but that would made it uber cool.

Anyway what he says isn't canon so don't worry about it too much.

 

[apenpaap]

Anyway what he says isn't canon so don't worry about it too much.

That it isn't canon only means someone who writes a new episode doesn't have to take it into consideration. It says nothing about whether or not it's true in-universe.

I think the reason they left the wormhole open was both for Odo to be able to return to the great link (IIRC the female Founder said that's more important then winning the war), and because they thought they could easily conquer the Federation.

 

[Anwar]

I would have liked it if they retained the more "Anti-Federation" tone of the Dominion and had there be more races used in their military than just the Vorta and Jem'Hadar (like how they originally were going to use the Hunters from S1 as their ship Navigators).

 

[Deks]

It's possible that the Dominion got word of the Federation's existence from TOS days ...
Enterprise or some other SF ships could have encountered some advanced alien civilizations that never joined the Feds for example and could have spread 'rumors' about the Feds.
Numerous SF ships went missing during exploratory missions (anomalies), and therefore some could have ended up in Dominion controlled space, or close to where they were.

Further more, for the Dominion to be so self-confident for example and that they would be able to wipe out the Federation ...
I doubt that.
For one thing the Feds were more or less on the same tech-stage like the Dominion (the Dominion having an advantage in shipbuilding and initially with their phase polaron beams that were counteracted), and encountered races such as Cytherians (whose knowledge would take 'decades to analyze' for example).
If the Feds would encounter the Dominion naturally in several hundred years ... the Feds could easily swarm into Dominion territory or simply eradicate their invasion fleets at the borders of where the two territories meet.

Quite simple.
The Dominion and the Founders were arrogant ... not to say the Feds were not in some cases, but still.

 

[Anwar]

The "Ships of the Line" book-calender gave the implication that the Dominion knew about the Alpha Quadrant races as far back as the ENT era: there was an entry and picture of how they found the NX-02's wreckage on a planet in the Gamma Quadrant.

 

[nx1701g]

The "Ships of the Line" book-calender gave the implication that the Dominion knew about the Alpha Quadrant races as far back as the ENT era: there was an entry and picture of how they found the NX-02's wreckage on a planet in the Gamma Quadrant.

And it was made canon (in the books at least) with the Destiny trilogy.

 

[Tulaberry whine]

The writers themselves said that the Dominion knew about the Federation for a while (the Dominion had existed for 2000 years) and they were planning on expanding naturally through their space until they met the Federation and then would take them out in a mass swarm invasion. The Wormhole sped up their timetable by a few hundred years.

I know what your referring to, I think its one of the bonus features of the season 4 DVD or season 5 but either way there is an interview with Robert Hewitt Wolfe where I think he says that was the original idea they had regarding the Dominion. I was actually a little disapointed that none of that made it on screen. I mean The Dominon was already pretty cool but that would made it uber cool.

Anyway what he says isn't canon so don't worry about it too much.

But most of it is, at least by implication.

In Jem Hadar and The Search it's pretty obvious The Dominion knew all about the Federation and had been watching it for a while: in the space of an episode it wipes out all of the Fed's ships and colonies in the Gamma Quadrant while two Jem Hadar soldiers talk knowingly to Sisko and Kira about Klingons and the Federation's treaty with the Cardassian and Bajorans respectively.

Then of course, two episodes later the Dominion is able to put together a detailed simulation that is so accurate it fools the senior staff for days to test their (and the Federation's) reaction to a Dominion invasion.

 

[Jaespol]

It's possible that the Dominion got word of the Federation's existence from TOS days ...
Enterprise or some other SF ships could have encountered some advanced alien civilizations that never joined the Feds for example and could have spread 'rumors' about the Feds.
Numerous SF ships went missing during exploratory missions (anomalies), and therefore some could have ended up in Dominion controlled space, or close to where they were.

Further more, for the Dominion to be so self-confident for example and that they would be able to wipe out the Federation ...
I doubt that.
For one thing the Feds were more or less on the same tech-stage like the Dominion (the Dominion having an advantage in shipbuilding and initially with their phase polaron beams that were counteracted), and encountered races such as Cytherians (whose knowledge would take 'decades to analyze' for example).
If the Feds would encounter the Dominion naturally in several hundred years ... the Feds could easily swarm into Dominion territory or simply eradicate their invasion fleets at the borders of where the two territories meet.

Quite simple.
The Dominion and the Founders were arrogant ... not to say the Feds were not in some cases, but still.

The Dominion was much more powerful than the Federation and more technologically advanced.

 

[Anwar]

Yeah, the Dominion War in the Alpha Quadrant was basically the Feds vs an Expeditionary Force. If they had to fight the whole Dominion (which according to the Star Charts book, is nearly twice the size of the Federation) they'd be screwed.

 

[ATW]

Yeah, the Dominion War in the Alpha Quadrant was basically the Feds vs an Expeditionary Force. If they had to fight the whole Dominion (which according to the Star Charts book, is nearly twice the size of the Federation) they'd be screwed.

To be fair you don't need to read the Star Charts book or any other book to come to that conclusion. All you need to do is watch the series, especially "Favour the Bold" and "Sacrifice of Angels" to get that feeling.

 

[PorthosShadow]

Yeah, the Dominion War in the Alpha Quadrant was basically the Feds vs an Expeditionary Force. If they had to fight the whole Dominion (which according to the Star Charts book, is nearly twice the size of the Federation) they'd be screwed.

To be fair you don't need to read the Star Charts book or any other book to come to that conclusion. All you need to do is watch the series, especially "Favour the Bold" and "Sacrifice of Angels" to get that feeling.

I mostly agree with that sentiment and logic makes it very clear The Dominon with all its power could have overrun The Alpha Quadrant easily. However, with the exception of a few episodes I don't think we as an audience really quite understood the full scope of The Dominion.